The latest events in Syria confirm that they are just a few links of the decade-long chain of shocks in the Middle East. Wars in Iraq and Libya, tensions around Iran, the so-called Arab Spring and now it seems to be Syrias turn to shed blood.

Over the last decade, the balance of powers in the Middle East has changed dramatically. Iraq turned from a local power into a disaster area. The same can be said about Libya. Egypt is losing its power in the region as well. Syria, which was another major power in the region, is rapidly turning into some kind of Somali. All this is happening amid the eternal confrontation between, the Arabs, the Persians and the Turks, with active participation of the USA, France and Great Britain. By the way, the UK and France contributed to the creation of such countries Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and helped to establish the borders between them in the early 20th century. Do London and Paris want to reestablish the borders?

Kurdish Question

The major problem is that the Kurds, people with their own culture, language, history and political ambitions, still havent acquired their own statehood.

Historically, Kurdistan is a region where the Kurds have been living for centuries (they represent 80-90% of the local population). It has an area of 500.000 square kilometers (the size of France). However, Kurdistan is just a notion. It is occupies the land that belongs to 4 neighboring states  Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. The biggest part (200.000 square km) belongs to Turkey. The 2nd largest area of Kurdistan is located in Iran (over 160K km2 and 10 million people. Iraqs part of Kurdistan occupies 75K km2 with 5 million people living there. And finally, Syrias part occupies only 15K km2 with 1.5 million people living there.
There are several countries of the former USSR that have Kurdish minorities. These are Azerbaijan  200K people, Armenia  75K, Turkmenistan  50K, Russia  65K. Kurds also live in Western Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands), the USA and Australia as well as several countries of Latin America.

Kurdistan could have emerged instead of Syria and Iraq. However, the winners of WWI failed to implement the idea that served as the basis of the treaty signed on August 10th 1920 after the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. Later on, the newly created Turkish Republic and Iran took the biggest part of the territory. The rest came to Iraq and Syria, which became independent later.

Attitude towards Kurdish minority. It varied with time in different countries. Centuries ago, Kurdistan was the area of endless battles between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. In 1638, Kurdistan was divided for the first time. Until then Kurdish tribes fought against, the Turks, the Persians and between them. Later on, they started fighting for independence. Since then, the attitude and policies towards the Kurdish issue was mostly of assimilative nature. During the last century, the Kurds periodically started uprisings, which were eventually suppressed. Saddam Hussein was especially cruel in crashing those Kurdish uprisings (later he was sentenced to death because of using chemical weapons in several Kurdish settlements). Iraqi Kurds were supported by Iran (later by the USA) while Turkish Kurds were backed by the USSR.

The Kurds are a major military power in the region. Any Kurd over 13 is a potential soldier. They have their own political parties and hidden multiple military units with thousands of radical fighters in each of them.

The Kurdish issue will always be up-to-date, at least until it is resolved. This is about the region Kurdistan is located in. It is rich in natural resources, especially natural gas and crude oil and is vital for the transportation of energy carriers from the Persian Gulf region to the USA and Europe. Therefore, there always be a lot of players in the arena. It is always easier to start a major conflict in the region than to stop it.

The Kurds have always viewed as a military power in multiple confrontations between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Even during the Russo-Turkish War (18771878), the Russian Empire planned to use the Kurds in a partisan war against the Ottoman Empire. The British Empire asked for the same kind of help during WWI while Germany tried to cooperate with Kurds during WWII. The USA also cooperated with the Kurds during the recent military operation in the Middle East.

The US may well address them for help once again today when the export of Iran oil is blocked and oil prices are volatile and nearing the local highs.

Kurdistan is the location of the major oil pipelines in the Middle East. If to consider the latest revolutions in Egypt, Tunis, Libya and Syria, the US authorities are able to support any revolt in the region that they will benefit from.

Today, when the Syrian government troops are mainly concentrated in Damask, the capital, and Aleppo, a business center, the North-East of Syria is controlled by Kurdish military units. President Bashar Asad pretends that he approves this state of affairs as the Kurds, he says, defend his power. But the Kurds themselves seem to have another opinion on the matter. They probably view this part of Syria as a part of a new and independent Kurdish state.

Today, when the Syrian government troops are mainly concentrated in Damask, the capital, and Aleppo, a business center, the North-East of Syria is controlled by Kurdish military units. President Bashar Asad pretends that he approves this state of affairs as the Kurds, he says, defend his power. But the Kurds themselves seem to have another opinion on the matter. They probably view this part of Syria as a part of a new and independent Kurdish state.

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How Syrian Kurds view their future is to be seen. But Assad GAVE Kurds regions bordering Turkey; and by doing so, he placed the defence of that part of Syria in Kurdish hands thus giving Turkey a massive headache.

Can Kurdish-Syrian regions join other Kurdish regions to form a state? 50/50... But they sure will fight any wannabe "liberator" who will step on their land!

The question that should be asked is this: What Clinton promised Erdogan in exchange for his continues military involvement in Syria? Could it be that US promised to assist him in his effort to retain Turkish territorial integrity in a face of Kurdish rising?

How Syrian Kurds view their future is to be seen. But Assad GAVE Kurds regions bordering Turkey; and by doing so, he placed the defence of that part of Syria in Kurdish hands thus giving Turkey a massive headache.

Can Kurdish-Syrian regions join other Kurdish regions to form a state? 50/50... But they sure will fight any wannabe "liberator" who will step on their land!

The question that should be asked is this: What Clinton promised Erdogan in exchange for his continues military involvement in Syria? Could it be that US promised to assist him in his effort to retain Turkish territorial integrity in a face of Kurdish rising?

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Kurdish groups in Syria are not cohesive, there's a PKK element currently cooperating with soon-to-be-disposed Syrian regime and there are Kurdish elements in full support of the Syrian opposition. The head of the Syrian opposition is a Kurd himself.

If this strategy does not work, it basically comes down to this:
The PKK came down from the mountains into Syrian cities, and cities will be shut-off and cleaned from terrorists like Fallujah. These cities are directly bordering Turkey.

Google "pkk lesleri" in picture-search and turn-off child-filter to see what tolerance there's for PKK.

Kurdish groups in Syria are not cohesive, there's a PKK element currently cooperating with soon-to-be-disposed Syrian regime and there are Kurdish elements in full support of the Syrian opposition. The head of the Syrian opposition is a Kurd himself.

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first off pkk is a freedom fighting force, turkish terrorist army kills civilian kurds while pkk attacks turkish army. give me an example pkk shot rockets into civilian areas like hamas does which btw turkey calls a "freedom fighter". !! having said that there is pkk supporters in westerk kurdistan yes but there is no pkk, there a Kurdish supreme council made up of 16 parties that was set up in Erbil south Kurdistan.

3000 Syrian Kurdish soldiers retuning home after getting trained up to protect their cities from KRG
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED_9RUBlr-g]650 Western (Syrian) Kurdistan Peshemrgas returning home from KRG 2012 - YouTube[/ame]

and so what ? pkk written on a wall does not mean jack even though it is quite normal we have that in KRG as well.

this is what counts

Meanwhile there are efforts to dispose the PKK from within Syria's Kurds.

erdogan clan and the KRG are supporting the Kurdish National Council and are relying on this faction to remove PKK sympathizers from Syria.

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there is no pkk in syria and there never was, there is PYD which is accused by turkey only to have ties with pkk

PKK usually operates in 2-to-10 terrorist cells.
In a terrain which has an elevation up to 5.200 meters.
Similar to US Army fighting the Taliban in Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions.

PKK's natural operation area.
Marked in Yellow.

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Qandil mountain is the only true friend of kurds , southern kurds (KRG) used it to fight saddam army for 30 years and it will be used by kurds for 1000 years to get to total freedom which turks know nothing about.

Concentrated in Syria.
Marked in blue.

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Kurdish region of syria, i dont know you were so good at using paint

There's no mountain-cave to hide and the terrain is ideal to bomb or to roll over with mechanized units.

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kurds in syria have never said they will attack anyone and they have not done so, all these "noises" are only lies and bull to stop kurds from gaining "self-rule" which is too late they already have a supreme council made up of 16 political parties, check points, mayors, schools, institutions etc.. soon an election and parliament just like KRG.

If this strategy does not work, it basically comes down to this:
The PKK came down from the mountains into Syrian cities, and cities will be shut-off and cleaned from terrorists like Fallujah. These cities are directly bordering Turkey.

Click to expand...

assad had jailed 2000 pyd members who are kurds from syria he released them as he has better things to worry about, not pkk again trying to find excuse to stop kurdish rights in syria. nothing new.

Google "pkk lesleri" in picture-search and turn-off child-filter to see what tolerance there's for PKK.

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yes pkk is a Kurdish organization fighting for stopping the occupation of Kurdish cities and towns by turkish within its artificial borders after the fall of ottoman empire given to them by the colonial powers in 1921, "treaty of sevres" was suppose to as well give kurds their own state but instead it was divided to 4 pieces against the will and consent of Kurdish people.

Germany was forced to be divided after 50 years they united.
Czech and Slovakia were forced into one state in the end they separated
kurds are forced into 4 states in the end they will reunite

nothing is stronger than the will of people for freedom, not turkish army can stop kurds from statehood, so far 2 parts liberated, soon when iran is attacked it will become another iraq but worse, will become 5 separate states , so turkey will then be forced by itself to give up Kurdish territories.

I think Assad made a mistake giving all that land to the Kurds, its definently a good thing for the Kurds and I hope this is another step on the way to statehood but Assad fucked up, hes not going to be able to go over there and take that land back.

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